HEALTH PROBLEMS

Hokitika Guardian, 18 February 1930, Page 3

HEALTH PROBLEMS

A MEDICO’S REVIEW. [United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph)—CopyrightV,[ (3 " LONDON; "Feb/' 10/ Many health problems remain, but English are more sober, healthier and long-lived, presenting an amazing transformation compared with a century ago, said Sir George Newman (Healtn Ministry Medical Expert) giving evidence before the Licensing Commission. He surveyed London’s drinking habits of two centuries, recalling that in 1720-70 the deaths exceeded the births owing to an orgy of spirit drinking, when gin was “a real grand destroyer,” with a public house for every forty-seven people. The tavern signposts invited the people to get drunk tor a penny and de a G drunk, for twopence, and there was straw to sleep off the intoxication free.” He added that scientific evidence did not exist to prove that alcohol fortified resistance. No great surgeon could be better for alcohol. Newman expressed the opinion that before dinner cocktail drinking wals undesirable from a medical viewpoint. Alcohol mortality figures were the highest among innkeepers, cab drivers and brewers. Alcoholism rendered the victims more susceptible to pneumonia and tuberculosis. He believed the American overhaul was undesirable.